GOP Senator: Biden's Rhetoric 'Over the Top,' 'Sign of Desperation'

(CNSNews.com) - Sen, John Barrasso (R.-Wyo.) says that recent rhetoric from Vice President Joe Biden--that, because of the Bush Administration and Wall Street, "people died" and "homes burned"--was "over the top" and a "sign of desperation."

“I think it was over the top for the vice president,” Barrasso, the vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, told CNSNews.com. “I think he's using fear tactics.”

Last Wednesday, Biden told a group of police and firefighters: “In many cities the result has been--and it’s not unique--murder rates are up, robberies are up, rapes are up. And folks, there’s a simple reason for that. It’s been a perfect storm out there from the God-awful Ponzi schemes that the last outfit allowed Wall Street to engage in, resulted in this gigantic collapse of the financial industry.” (Click here to read Biden’s full comments.)

On Thursday, CNSNews.com read that quote to Barrasso at a Capitol Hill news conference, and asked: “Do you believe this is correct and appropriate rhetoric for the vice president?”

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Barrasso said of Biden: “He knows the first stimulus package that he went out to promote to spend almost a trillion dollars--he knows that it has not succeeded. That it was only a ‘so-called’ stimulus package. I think he has to have doubts about whether this one is going to work.

“We have people that need to get back to work," said Barasso. "There are solutions that are out there. And I think to try to scare the American people with what he had to say really shows a sign of desperation and it's not what we ought to be doing.”